Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Tue 26th August 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
One of a misfortune domain names. Ever. - We lost some vowels along the way. Good luck finding us. I’d like to buy an ‘o’, please.I’ve seen a lot of bad domain names in my day. There was the women’s site sk-rt.com (it’s cute for skirt!). Then there was some made up name like schmoop or shloop or something like that. (It’s in my archives somewhere, but it was so bad I can’t even remember exactly what it was.) Now we have a new nominee for worst domain name: neighbrhds.com Neighbrhds is the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rightside signs new Google domain parking agreement - Company says material terms are “substantially similar” to the prior agreement. Rightside, parent company of eNom and domain parking platform HotKeys, has signed a new domain name parking agreement with Google. In an SEC filing, the company stated that the agreement is similar to the one it replaces: In general, the material terms of the Agreement are substantially similar to the Prior Agreement, including compliance with Google’s policies, maintenance of service ... read more ...
Mon 25th August 2014
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This week in new TLDs: $150k/domain? Plus .black, .hiv, and .creditcard - Pull out your .creditcard. This week will be an interesting one for new top level domain names: Afilias takes a different tact on .color domains, an EAP with a $150k price tag, Donuts raises the bar with .creditcard, and the first “social cause” TLD launches. Tuesday Following on the lackluster launches of .red, .pink and .blue, Afilias launches .black. .Red is its most successful color domain so far, but it has received fewer than 2,500 registrations. Afilias ... read more ...
 
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Domain name financier condemned to jail for taxation fraud - Australian man was active on domain name forums. A domain name investor who was active on various domain name forums has been sentenced to jail for defrauding Australian tax authorities. Michael Purse spent tens of thousands of dollars buying expired domain names, District Court Judge Steven Millsteed said. The judge said Purse got $130,134 in illegal refunds for several businesses he set up to buy the domains, reports PerthNow. According to the publication, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name registration and a Paradox of Choice - Offering too many choices might lead to more abandoned shopping carts. One of my favorite books is Barry Schwartz’s The Paradox of Choice. The premise of the book is that more choice doesn’t necessarily mean more satisfaction. It can lead to regret, dissatisfaction, and indecision. The book references a report by Columbia and Stanford researchers called “When Choice is Demotivating” (pdf). One of the field experiments in the report involved a sample station ... read more ...
Fri 22nd August 2014
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Why Frank Schilling’s new train ad uses http:// - Otherwise, lots of people might not get to the website. Yesterday Frank Schilling tweeted this picture of a bus ad for his .sexy top level domain name: Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry, responded asking about why the ad includes https://, and Frank Schilling explained: That lots of cell phone users need to type in http:// before a new TLD if they’re typing the address into their address bar, is a key example of the universal acceptance problem with new TLDs. Even ... read more ...
 
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New TLDs: is it an awareness, acceptance or direct issue? - Are domain registrants not aware of new TLD options or do they just not accept them? Or is there just low demand for each .com alternative? My initial reaction to the underwhelming “out of the gate” registration numbers for new top level domain names this year was that it’s an awareness issue. 99.99% of people have never heard of new TLDs. Once they’re aware, they’ll start registering them. After taking a look at registrar search yesterday, I’m starting ... read more ...
Thu 21st August 2014
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This week’s lapsed domain report: Got .info? - That would be Coleridge — his ill fated sailor thirstily contemplating the vast seawater. But I doubt “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was the Rime.com that just sold at GoDaddy Auctions for $12.8k. Aside from that archaic spelling of “rhyme”, we have “rime” as the hoarfrost that forms from a fog in winter. Nope. Not it either. My bet is on the Play Station game, Rime — whose trailer is oddly reminiscent of Coleridge’s poem with its sea scape, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Cash and .Fund any get fewer than 1,000 registrations - Slow start for the two new TLDs that launched yesterday (for which we have data.) Five top level domain names launched yesterday. Unfortunately, ICANN’s centralized zone file system only has updated zone files for two of them. .Cash gained 725 registrations to end the day with 909 in the zone file. .Fund picked up just 414 to get to 625. There are no first day zone files for Donuts’ other two TLDs, .tax and .investments. A zone file for Rightside’s .haus is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name hunt is most softened (at some registrars) - A look at how major domain registrars are handling domain search in the wake of new TLDs. I’ve written a couple times about the state of registrar search as registrars grapple with an onslaught of new TLDs, most recently at the end of February. There’s good news for TLD registries: search is getting a lot better. Let’s run through the registrars I checked last time for an update. (For this article, I chose to search for “valleyview construction” for three ... read more ...
Wed 20th August 2014
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What domain names NASCAR and others bought during Sedo final week - NASCAR among end users buying domain names last week. Sedo sold $1.1 million worth of domain names last week, including one to NASCAR. Details of these end user domain name sales are below. You can view previous lists like this here. If you’d like to learn how to sell your domain names like these on Sedo, download this report. Creon.co.uk $1,500 – Abbott Laboratories, maker of Creon, a pill that aids digestion. QuartetMedicine.com $850 – This domain was registered ... read more ...
 
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Reverse domain name hijacking statute over SaintLazarusUSA.com - WIPO panelist hands down RDNH ruling. Every once in a while I read a UDRP involving organizations in a world I simply didn’t know existed. Such is the case in The American Association of the Order of St. Lazarus, Inc. v. Thierry Villejust over the domain name SaintLazarusUSA.com. The complainant was found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in the case. The respondent is “a member of the governing council of the Orleans obedience and serves as the Grand Bailiff ... read more ...
 
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Registry launches “Chinese Domain Ambassador Program” - Registry engages with customers with ambassador program. Here’s another example of a registry reaching out directly to its registrants to help promote their new top level domain name. TLD Registry, the company behind Dot Chinese Online (.在线) and Dot Chinese Website (.中文网), has launched a its Chinese Domain Ambassador Program. The company noticed a group of Chinese domainers supporting their domain names shortly after launch. It reached out to these domain ... read more ...
Tue 19th August 2014
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Are industry-specific resellers a destiny of domain name registration? - Niche resellers and registrars are key for selling industry-specific domain names. Many of the new top level domain names coming to market are targeted to particular industries: .photography for photographers, .plumbing for plumbers, .solar for the solar industry. Selling these domain names through mass market domain name registrars is tricky. The domain names are unlikely to come up high in search results unless a particular keyword closely matches the TLD. Unless ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrant of 4,000+ .email domain names faces ascent authorised problems - Yoyo.email claims it registered trademark-matching .email domain names for a legitimate fair use. Most National Arbitration Forum panels have disagreed. You’ve probably never heard of Yoyo.email before, but it is one of the biggest individual registrants of new top level domain names in a single TLD. The company registered over 4,000 .email domain names. The problem for Yoyo.email is that a large number of these domain names match famous trademarks, such as dunkindonuts.email, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The state of a domain name industry - My views on domain parking, domain sales, registrars and registries. I’ve been collecting my thoughts on the domain name business over the past month, and it’s time to put them down in writing. Here’s what I think about the state of the domain name industry in August, 2014. Domain parking is down. Way down. But don’t confuse down with out. We’re still talking about a relatively big business. Rook Media’s acquisition of DomainSponsor and its domain name ... read more ...
Mon 18th August 2014
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Poker Tilt: a pro poker actor (and infrequently domainer) tells his life story - Professional poker player and domain investor Dutch Boyd publishes Poker Tilt. A key reason I like the domain name industry is that I get to meet people from very different backgrounds. One of these people is Dutch Boyd, a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner who also dabbles in domain names. I met Boyd in person during a TRAFFIC conference in Vegas many years ago. He was a fan of the blog and we started chatting. We ended up heading to the poker tables ... read more ...
 
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New TLDs this week: .Bio, .Haus and an costly Donuts domain - StartingDot and Rightside join Donuts with new top level domain name releases this week. Last week was a Donuts-only week for new TLDs. This week the mega-registry is joined by Rightside and StartingDot. On Wednesday, Rightside will launch .haus. That’s German for “house”. Expect to pay anywhere from $25-$40 for .haus domains. Also on Wednesday, four financial Donuts domain names exit EAP and revert to regular pricing:.cash, .tax, .fund and .investments. .Investments ... read more ...
 
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Donuts compelling the TLDs during Vegas conform uncover (photo) - Company goes direct to customers to promote its niche domain names. “If you build it, they will come.” Not if they don’t know you’ve built it! Although there are close to 200 new top level domain names on the market, dozens of them niche domains for particular industries, very few people know about them. I’d bet fewer than 1% of business owners have ever heard of new TLDs, let alone most of the niche extensions. New TLD backers need to get in front of business ... read more ...
 
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Porsche loses Porsche.social URS to designed fan site - Porsche.social is just a parked page, but its owners claim to be creating a free site for Porsche enthusiasts. Car company Porsche has lost a Uniform Rapid Suspension cybersquatting case it brought against the San Jose, California owner of Porsche.social. Interactiv Corporation told the URS panel that it plans to use the domain name for a free community for Porsche car enthusiasts and will put a disclaimer on every webpage that it is not affiliated with or authorized ... read more ...
Fri 15th August 2014
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4chan loses domain name brawl with Oversee.net - 4chan wanted to get the domain name 4chan.com. Popular bulletin board site 4chan has lost a case it filed to get the domain name 4chan.com. 4chan, LLC, which operates the top 1,000 site 4chan.org, filed the complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against Oversee.net back in March. One commenter on my original story about the UDRP case thought it was odd that 4chan was just now coming after the domain name. That person also pointed out that 4chan ... read more ...
Thu 14th August 2014
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Medical domain names all underneath 2,000 registrations after initial day - No surprises in initial launches of four medical-themed domain names. As I previewed earlier this week, the only four domain names entering true general availability this week were medical-themed domains from Donuts. Here are how many domains are registered in each of the four after the first day, based on zone file numbers: .Dental 1,971 .Clinic 1,447 .Care 1,395 .Surgery 536 The numbers are about where I expected them to be. As I mentioned earlier this week, three ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week’s lapsed domain name sales roundup - Along the way to yesterday’s $20k sale of EnRoute.com, GoDaddy expired auctions zigzagged through some desirable addresses and took a few weird detours. Two domains that attracted me personally were the self-explanatory GenerateLeads.com ($8k) and Masker.com ($2.7k), which suits various privacy services and also describes a guest at a masquerade. Other bidding results appear to be more about the link profiles of past websites than due to the quality of the domain ... read more ...
 
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A garland of domain names sell for $1.5 million, arrange of… - Domain names change hands, but not with cash. The domain names manufacturedhome.com, manufacturedhomes.com, manufacturedhouse.com, manufacturedhomes.net and modularhomes.com have been sold for over $1 million. Sort of. There’s a bit of a backstory. The seller is SearchCore, a company that, until recently, was in the business of creating directory and lead gen sites. Before that, the company was known as WeedMaps. It had a directory for marijuana sellers, but sold ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy justification IPO filing, reports Q2 results - Company continues to grow revenue as it heads toward IPO. GoDaddy released its second quarter financial results today through an amended S-1 Initial Public Offering filing with the SEC. Q2 2014 revenue came in at $338.5M, up from $276.0M in the same quarter of 2013 and $320.2M in Q1 2014. The net loss for the quarter was $37.5 million, worse than the $35.3 million loss it turned in during the second quarter of 2013 but better than the $51.3M loss in the first quarter ... read more ...